Guardian Wings
by SaturdayHotCoffee
Summary: HIATUS. ZenXOC! Jiaying just moved into Ukiyoe town and happens to join the Kiyojouji Paranormal Squad and she's about to spend her weeks in the Nura Clan's mansion. Apparently, someone she doesn't want to meet found her here in Japan.
1. Fènghuáng

**Summary: Chapter 1: **Jiaying just moved into Ukiyoe town and happens to join the Kiyojouji Paranormal Squad and she's about to spend her weeks in the Nura Clan's mansion. Apparently, someone she doesn't want to meet found her here in Japan.

Zen, her life saviour seems to be curious about her whole existence, but all he could do now is to wait...

**Warnings: **Probably some grammar mistake, Genderswitch Rikuo (as seen in .net/s/7381982/1/Feelings).

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Nurarihyon no Mago, OC characters belongs to me.

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><p>Ukiyoe town – Nura Reika's house. Earlier today at school, her classmate, Kiyotsugu, nominated that they spend their week at Reika's house. His excuses was Reika's house looks haunted, and it seems to be the most perfect place for the team to hold out an investigation about youkai.<p>

Jiaying, the Chinese girl who just transferred to Ukiyoe Middle School not long after Yura tags along with the team. She's a pretty much open minded girl. Since she doesn't has any plans on spending her holiday, she decided to give it a go.

Dressed up in her white dress and a light yellow sweater, she take off her sandals and steps into the main house of the Nura Clan. Her crimson pupils scans around the house, somehow, she gets a really weird feelings in here. It's either she's being paranoid or there are people staring at her.

She shrugs the feelings off and follows the others into a dojo hall, where they would be spending their nights in.

"Are we done here?" Jiaying asks if there's any other stuff her friends need help at.

"Nope~!" Toori, the girl with jet black hair, pony-tailed at the back replies.

"Alright. I'm going to the bathroom for a bit."

Bathroom is just her excuse to walk around the mansion, touring herself. Even though Reika said that she will be back, the girl with medium length ashen hair could barely wait any longer.

Normally, a mansion like this would be noisy around this time, since the workers would be busy preparing lunch for everyone who live in the manor but – the silence made it feels like it's a deserted place.

Actually, Jiaying is hiding some truth in herself too. She knows the deal about youkai of Nura Clan, but she pretended like she doesn't know anything and she can't sense them at all.

****XXXX****

As the young ashen haired female is wondering around, she accidentally stumble across someone's leg. Jiaying nearly fall, but somehow she manages to get her balance back to her feet. She turns around, staring at the figure that doesn't seem to be flinching an inch from the impact.

She is slightly shocked from seeing a male with khaki hair sleeping near the screen door, his leg was stretched on the corridor, creating obstacle for anyone who doesn't pay attention on their way. She kneels in front of the male who appears to wear a dark blue kimono with red details over the sleeves and neck while humming a sound of curiosity to herself.

Jiaying holds out her hand and wave it in front of the unknown person, checking if he's awake, or dead asleep. _Huh?_. At this rate, people will trip over this 'sleeping log' over here.

"Mister~? Helloooo?" She calls while shaking him slightly.

She could hear a slight groan coming from the khaki haired male, but it was for a short period before the groan stops and the gentle snore continues. He seems beat, probably she should leave him alone.

"**Zen-sama!**" calls a voice from a far.

Jiaying nearly panics from the voice, since that other person might think she's trying to do weird thing on the khaki haired male. Lucky for her, she's standing behind a wooden pillar, her figure can't be seen by the side. She could hear wings flapping closer to her.

"What is he doing, sleeping here! He would catch a cold!" the small figure, who appears to be Karasu-Tengu fly towards them.

She could hear the smaller figure muses to himself, nagging, just like an old man. Laugh nearly escapes her throat, but she holds back and turns around to run away from the scene. She saw Karasu-Tengu. That's not a good sign for the young heiress, Reika, since she's trying her best so her friends won't see the youkais living in this mansion.

Karasu-Tengu could hear footsteps from his side getting further away. All he could catch are the sight of a female running away from the place.

'_Who was that? Is that one of Reina-sama's friends?_' he thought.

"**What's all the **_traps_** about?**" questions Zen, the khaki haired male who just woke up from his slumber.

Well of course, he's attacked by Karasu-Tengu's nagging, telling that it's not good for his health if he catches a cold from sleeping at the corridor. Karasu-Tengu asks Zen if he knows the girl who just ran away earlier, but it was to no avail. Zen slept like a log, thus he did not notice anyone's presence with him before.

**XXXX**

"Eh,... where did everyone go?"

That is the first thing that comes out from Jiaying's mouth after she steps into the well furnished dojo. Probably she went on tour to herself for that long, even her friends left her and travel by themselves. She scratches the back of her head and turns around, heading out from the dojo to look for the Kiyouji Paranormal Squad. Probably they're around at temples or somewhere.

'__Lets just take a random guess.__'

Unlucky for her, she ends up at the wrong shrine. There goes 30 minutes of walking to the shrine, all to no avail. This is when she remembers, she has a communication doll! She facepalms herself and searches inside her bag for the doll that resembles her... in a freaky way.

Beep beep!

"Uwah!" She jolts in surprise as the doll buzzes, half ringing in her hand.

She answers the call with a slight shocked face, but then relieves because Kiyotsugu tells her their current position. However, the sigh of relief doesn't last that long because Kiyotsugu says that Kana and Yura has been missing.

"I-I got it! You and the others go back to Reika-chan's house... I'll look for Kana-chan and Yura-chan!" She answers.

She shoves back the doll to where it belongs and covers her face with her palms and sighs deeply. _Now where can I find them?_ She thought. Kiyotsugu said that he tried to call for the two of them, but it can't be reached.

"**Ah, what is this? The **__**fènghuáng**___** is playing with her human friends?**__"_

_A/N: en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Fenghuang_

She perks her head up fast, looking around for the suspiciously familiar voice. _It can't be..._

"Oh yes, it is me, the _húli jīng_. The one that causes you to leave China and go to Japan. Luckily I managed to find you here, my bride." the voice replies to Jiaying's inner thought.

_A/N: en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Huli_jing **and I changed its gender ;D**_

She clicks her tongue out of annoyance and shoots the golden needles made out of her fine feathers towards the direction of the male fox. The leaves shuffles as the male leaps down to dodge her attack. He knows himself best, once he got hit with those needles, it means the end for him.

"What do you want from me, you trickster?" she replies harshly.

"Tsk tsk. I've came this far to find my missing bride. The _Heavenly Nāgas_ seems to be the one who hid you from me... **Unforgivable**."

The male fox has been assaulting her sexually, physically and mentally since the past few years. Someone from the main house leaked out the information about a phoenix living with the Nāgas there, and thanks to that, many people tries to kidnap her.

It was her brothers who gave the idea for her to run to Japan for a while, and they will join her once they solve the problems at the main house which might take about few months.

The male fox charges at the female, slashing his nine tails towards her so she couldn't flee. Jiaying steps on top of the male's head and kicks him from behind so he would fall down with her pinning him on top. She takes out her dagger that she's been hiding under her sleeve, threatening to cut his neck if he dare move a muscle.

"Wah! That's my bride! It's my lost here! ...But if you kill me, you could _never_ find your precious human friends~" He says with a loud laugh, breaking the tense moment between them.

This is when she's caught off guard. Did húli jīng got her friends? She clicked her tongue once again, frowning.

"Where are they?" She roars.

Golden flames merges with her dagger, creating a high temperature heat on the fox's neck. He doesn't cry out of pain however, he continues on laughing since he manages to provoke the young female this far.

"You're naïve, my dear _fènghuáng_..."

__Slash!__

Blood spurting out from the young female's mouth, chest and stomach. Somehow, she manages to escape at the second the fox lunching his another raid on her. Jiaying's body is surrounded by golden flames as she jumps on the tree, trying to find a way to escape.

The young female transformed into a beautiful golden phoenix, with the wings of swallow and the tail of peacock. She's severely wounded. She careless about it since she need to find her missing friends. If they were taken by húli jīng for real, then, she can't rest just yet.

Meanwhile, the Nura Clan's mansion is having an uproar about the Kyuso Clan's attack. Zen heads out to aid the injured by his own will, since his sworn sister already head out to save her friends who got captured by the Kyuso Clan.

As he is riding the Oboro-guruma, he sees something identical to a big golden bird. To be honest, it's pretty, and he never see anything like it, but... somehow, the bird is flying weirdly. That is when he notices the blood dripping off the golden bird's body before the bird's wings stop flapping and its body threatens to fall.

The khaki haired male panics and orders the ox-cart to fly low near the golden bird as he catches it.

"What the hell is **this**...?" He mumbles softly as he catches the phoenix into his arms and lays it down on the cart's seat.

Severely wounded, the beautiful bird. He brings out his ointment and starts to heal the golden bird's injuries. Zen has no idea that this bird is actually the girl who stumbled across his sleeping figure earlier in afternoon, not that he know what this bird is actually.

He grits his teeth and tells the ox-cart youkai to turn its course back to the Nura Clan's mansion, since he doesn't has any proper medical instruments to stops the bleeding of the unconscious bird.

_**XXXX**_

"Ah, Zen-sama!" the hair youkai says in surprise, noticing that Zen waltzes down the cart with blood drenched on his kimono.

"You're wounded?" Karasu-Tengu who happens to be there panics. He flies around Zen, checking if he's injured anywhere, since judging from the quantity of blood drenched on Zen's kimono, it must be one hell of a big wound.

"No no, it's not me. It's this fella over here." He replies with comical sweat drop on his head, trying to calm Karasu-Tengu down.

He put away his left arm, revealing a golden bird wrapped in his cape in his right arm's embrace. He asks for his medical implements so he could stop the blood instantly. He works on Jiaying's wound gently, not willing to injure the bird more.

"W-what's that thing?" Kejoro asks curiously as she hands over white bandages to the khaki haired male.

"I don't know, never seen anything like this." He replies.

Both of them looks up to Karasu-Tengu, hoping he would know something... and it seems that their guess are right. Karasu-Tengu seems to be surprised from looking at the golden bird. They're waiting for the tengu to say something patiently.

"That's... the _fènghuáng_... How did it end up** here** in Japan?" Karasu-Tengu says as he fly towards the golden bird.

"What do you mean? This thing isn't from Japan?" Zen asks.

"Not really. The_ fènghuáng_ are commonly said among the Chinese yaoguai, which practically the same as youkai in Japan. It's said that this mythical bird is really powerful that many people seeks for it, but there are no evidence of its existence." Karasu-Tengu replies.

"If it's that powerful, then how come it appears out of blue with severe wounds?"

"How should I know?" Karasu-Tengu flaps his wings in annoyance, comical vein pops on his head.

As they are talking, the golden bird in Zen's embrace gleams a bright golden light. Its figure starts to grow, slowly, its taking a shape of an unconscious young female. Of course, the three youkai are surprised from this.

"Wh-what the hell?" Zen jolts in surprise, but he's conscious enough to not let the female fall from his arms.

"E-eh! Isn't that-?" Kejoro covers her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono. Her eyes widens slightly.

"She's Reika-sama's friend!"

"**What?**"

"Anyway! Bring her in first! Zen-sama, take care of her. Kejoro, prepare her bed. We'll ask her more questions after she recover."

The crow tells the younger youkai to do as said. He thought that the heiress of the Nura Clan knew about her friend's origin already, and she's Reika's friend, so he can't just leave her dying and cold. _Probably I should ask Reika-sama about this later..._ he thought. Just that, what could possibly cause the severe wound on the phoenix? He might want to ask his sons to investigate about this later.

**XXXX**

Three days has passed since the incident when Zen saved the mythical phoenix from dying. He found out that she's his sworn sister's friend. She hasn't wake up ever since. In a day, he checks the wound on Jiaying's body for few times, but... she heals like a monster. It's like she's able to regenerate while she's unconscious, thus healing her severe wound in a day maximum.

Today, he checks her wound again, but it looks like... they are never there. Not even a scratch or bruise. Even so, she just won't wake up. In the other hand, Reika tells her friends that Jiaying headed home few days ago and unable to join them for the week because she doesn't want them to be worried.

"How's she, Zen-nii?" Reika asks as she slides the screen door close, walking next to Zen who has been watching over her friend since the past few days.

"Still unconscious. Her wounds are_ completely_ healed though." He replies while lowering his body and lays on the tatami floor.

Zen seems to be tired as well. Seems like he can't stop thinking about what just happened to Jiaying. He knows that she's in danger, but he's unable to protect the young male himself. Zen, the bird youkai is a specialist in making poisons and medicines, but as he grow up, his health starts to decline. Reika told him many time not to get too worked up... like now.

Few times already, he starts to cough a lot because lack of sleep.

"Zen-nii, go to rest." Reika demanded while taking out the futon from the wardrobe.

The heiress sighs and tugs on her sworn brother's hand, dragging him so his head would be on the futon. He yelps from being dragged harshly, but he doesn't fight back. He knows himself that he needs rest.

"Ah, thanks. I'll leave the rest to you then." Zen says as he fixes himself so he would lay on the futon comfortably.

Zen put his right arm so he would be pillowing his head as he look at the side where Jiaying is laying unconscious. He closes his eyes, breathing in and out softly before drifting into his dreamland fast.

**XXXX**

It's noon, the day after. The khaki haired male brings up his hand to his eyes level, blocking the irritating sunlight from waking him up from his good sleep. He grunted softly and turns around to look at Jiaying's futon.

"Oh.. She's awake..." He mumbles to himself, closing his eyes once again.

Wait, what? He shoots his body up quickly, searching around for the young ashen haired female. Just then, he hears a soft snore, coming from under his blanket. His eyes blinks in curiosity, his fingers working on the blanket, pulling it aside.

Zen's eyes widen slightly from seeing the ashen haired female sleeping next to him, inside his blanket, her right arm rested on his lap. The young youkai male blushes from the embarrassing sight...- but he doesn't push her off. Instead, his long slender fingers shuffles slowly to Jiaying's ashen locks, touching it softly. He's half scared that he would wake the other up, thus catching him doing this to her.

"_Longwei ge ge... I don't want to go to Japan..._"

The bird youkai stares at the frowning expression of Jiaying. He heard her muttering words in Chinese, but like hell could he understand it. He pulls his fingers back, sighing softly._ Is she having a nightmare?_ He thinks. He's only judging it from her sleeping expression. There's no way someone would frown in their sleep if they're having a good dream.

"Hey _kid_... wake up."

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><p><strong>AN: Haha~ So... I tried to make the story longer.. Please note that English is not my native language, so I'm still learning. *expanding my vocabulary* ;D Chapter 2 will come later.**

**Anyhow, thanks for reading~ Please give me review, okay? **

**Currently fixing; Itaku x Reika's stories.**

**Oh by the way, I drew Reika's picture a week ago, so I want to know what you guys think of it! Not sure how to show tho...**

**quizilla(dot)teennick(dot)com/stories/21696074/nura-reikas-char-design**


	2. Sadist

**A/N : I typed this while fighting against my writers block... e_e  
><strong>

**Summary: Chapter 2: **Jiaying is thankful that people who just knew her recently tries to help her out. Zen is wondering why is she always picking up a fight with him, though he couldn't really say that he hates it.

**Warnings: **Might be some grammar mistakes, genderswitch for Rikuo F!Rikuo Reika, curses.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Nurarihyon no Mago, OC characters belongs to me.

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><p>"<em>Longwei ge ge... I don't want to go to Japan...<em>"

The bird youkai stares at the frowning face of Jiaying. He hears her muttering words in Chinese, but like hell could he understand it. He pulls his fingers back, sighing softly. _Is she having a nightmare?_He thinks. He's only judging it from her expressions. There's no way someone would frown in their sleep if they're having a good dream.

"Hey _kid_... wake up."

Zen shakes her shoulder slightly, but the girl seems to be showing no sign of waking up. The lower part of his eye twitches comically as he lands a smack on the girl's head. The sleepy girl shoots up from the futon and looks around, surprised.

"E-earthquake?" she yelps.

The bird youkai is known as hotheaded guy, so this kind of thing is really typical for him. The male lets out a sigh of relief when he saw the girl is finally awake, and she looks perfectly fine, despite the comically huge bump on her head due to Zen's smacking.

"Finally you're awake." he says, scratching the back of his neck while yawning widely.

"H-huh? Awake?" She replies to him and fixes her messy ashen locks.

She has no idea she had been unconscious for few days, because she felt like only a day passed. She laughs and scratches the back of her head awkwardly.

"Are we... Did we 'did' it?" she asks shamelessly.

She was judging from the current situation. She's in an unfamiliar bedroom with an unfamiliar guy, and woke up at the same unfamiliar futon. She could only lead to one conclusion... –

Zen's eyes twitches again, but this time, a comical vein pops under his eyes.

"We did not you idiot! And it's not something a lady should say!" he yells at her.

"E-eh? Then, what should I say?" Jiaying asks dumbly.

The bird youkai feels like he could whack Jiaying from being so bold about it. Of course, he feels a tad embarrassing feelings because of her question. He shoves the blanket off him completely and stands up, fixing his kimono and walks towards the door.

"I'll tell you later, for now stay in here. I'll be right back."

She nods slightly, watching the shoji screen door sliding open and close. At first she thinks that she might just follow what she was told obediently, then again she's not the type who listens to other as much. Jiaying is fidgeting while waiting in the room.

Zen in the other hand, is heading towards the main hall, where most Nura Clan's youkai are hanging out. He tucks his hands into his kimono's sleeve while letting out a deep exasperated sigh. He's currently looking for the young heiress for the yakuza clan, Reika, since she did asked him to call her once Jiaying wakes up.

He then approaches Reika who's sitting with Kubinashi, Kurotabo, Aotabo, Tsurara and the others who are chatting about usual random stuff. Reika then grins at him and gestures so he would come and joins them.

"Just woke up?" she asks.

Zen yawns and nods slightly as a short reply.

"Oi, your friend, ...she woke up earlier." he says.

The two of them heads back to the room where Zen left the girl earlier, but less that he knows, Jiaying already left the room and roams around in the Nura Clan's mansion. When he notices this, (that's when he already arrived at the room and found out she wasn't there anymore) his eyes twitches in annoyance.

"..Where the hell did she go?" he mutters to himself.

"Eh? Reika-sama? Are you looking for something?"

Reika and Zen looks down at Natto-kozo.

"En, yeah. Did you see a girl with long ashen hair around?" she asks.

"Oh? Yup! Earlier I when I went to the kitchen to get some cups, I saw Kejoro giving food to her. Man~ she ate 3 bowl of rice really fast!" he replies.

Reika blinks in surprise and follows Natto-kozo to the kitchen, the khaki haired male follows behind her. As they reach the kitchen, they could see many empty dishes piling next to Jiaying. The young heiress sweat drops from this and thinks, is _Jiaying that hungry?_

WHACK!

Zen lands his fist on Jiaying's head, which practically makes her spurs the tea out of surprise. She rubs the back of her head while wiping the drinks on her mouth using a hanky that appears randomly. She stares at him and Reika in surprise.

"W-what?" she asks.

"I told you to wait at the room." a comical vein pops on Zen's cheek, twitching slightly.

"I-I couldn't help it! I was hungry!" she replies.

"Zen-sama, you should join her too. She said you just woke up yourself." Kejoro says.

The timing fits perfectly after Kejoro said that, Zen's empty stomach grumbling.

"What's that? The timing is damn well like those in anime." Jiaying mumbles.

The khaki haired male's face turns slightly red from this, but he doesn't protest. He settles down somewhere nearby as Reika sits next to Jiaying. He watches the three females chatting. Somehow, he could feel that it's hard for him to fit in as they're having girls talk.

Jiaying and Zen apparently sit across each other. There was a point when the two of them unintentionally stares at each other.

"Eh? This family is a yakuza clan?" she asks.

"Yeah. And Reika-sama is the heiress for this family~" Kejoro hums while replying to her. It seems that she really enjoys her company.

"Oh! Hai, Oyabun!" Jiaying say out of amusement while looking at Reika who's still eating.

"What the-" Reika sweat drop from hearing that, but she just laughs right after.

Zen closes his eyes and continues eating, but then, he stops and put his chopstick and bowl with quarter of rice still inside it.

"I'm done." he mumbles.

"Oi, Zen. You should finish your food you bastard." Jiaying mumbles with her mouth full.

**_(A/N: Jiaying uses 'kono yaro' to make herself sound badass and yakuza-ish)_**

"It's alright, I'm already full." he replies with a vein twitching comically under his eyes.

"Jiaying-san, you shouldn't talk with your mouth full." Kejoro chuckles.

The ashen haired female blinks and swallows her food upon hearing that. Somehow, they're acting like a mother with daughter, or big sister with little sister. Jiaying then lets out a satisfying sound after she swallows her drink, then she looks back at the male who sit across her in the kitchen.

"It's never about you, it's about the food. It would be a waste if you wouldn't finish eating. Seems like I need to reminds your future wife to not give you any rice to eat because you'll waste them." she says.

"What are you, my mother?" he asks, sweat dropping.

"Jiaying-chan, you live alone right? Is it safe for you to go back home?" Reika asks.

The ashen haired girl nods slightly to her friends, then she lets out a soft smile. Since she came here few weeks ago, she has always been living alone in the apartment provided by her brothers.

"Why didn't you live with your brothers?"

"They are busy! My big brother said that he will come to Japan in less than a week, until then I had to survive by my own." she scratches the back of her head and chuckles slightly.

For a 13 years old girl to talk about surviving by her own, it seems very unnatural. Remembering how she was severely wounded few days ago, there would be no way for the khaki haired bird youkai to allow her to go back home. Of course, she made it alive few days ago because it was her luck that he was the one who found her.

"Jiaying-san... I think it's better for you to live here with us for a while until your brother would be in Japan. Reika-sama wouldn't mind, right?" Kejoro replies.

Certainly it's the best for Jiaying to stay at the Nura Clan's mansion. If the forces were strong enough to make Jiaying escapes to Japan, it means that they aren't ordinary bunch and Jiaying knew that best. Surely her presence couldn't be detected because there are many youkai in this house, but what if the fox manages to track her down?

The young girl frowns by thinking about it. She honestly thinks that by coming to Japan, she could go through a normal junior high school girl, but it seems like that's not going to be happening soon. After a while, she finally agrees to this suggestion.

The young heiress and the hair youkai let out a sigh of relief.

"Jiaying-chan will share room with me then!" Reika suddenly burst out into laughter.

Somehow, the odd clan seems to care about someone who they just know recently so much. She couldn't help but to feel slightly touched from this.

'_Thanks._'

**XXXXX**

"Zen-nii, you should go to rest."

Zen brings his optics up to look at where the voice is coming from. Reika approaches the male who's sitting by himself at the corridor while she's holding a small tray with a clay tea cup on it. She then holds the cup to Zen, asking him to drink it while it's still hot.

"Reika you little shit, stop treating me like a sick brat." he snickers but incidentally coughs after he said that.

"Aren't you?" she replies back sarcastically.

The young heiress who's currently taking her night form settles down next to Zen. The night seems so tranquil that she could hear the sound of the sakura tree branches shifting against each other. The bird youkai carefully sips that Reika gave him earlier.

".. Hm..?" the bird youkai looks at the liquid in the cup, somehow.. – the tea tastes different from what he usually has.

"You noticed? Jiaying-chan brew it for you. She said it's as her gratitude because you saved her few days ago." Reika says.

He snickers slightly to his sworn sister and continue on sipping his tea. He notices that Jiaying didn't use the usual tea leaves, and the scent seems to be slightly sweeter from the usual one.

"Take this. Jiaying-chan asked me to give this to you." Reika mumbles.

The young heiress put out a dictionary tall paper bag on the wooden corridor floor. Zen sets the cup down and picks up the paper bag without questioning the other. He sniffs the packet and then opens to look inside of it.

"The tea leaves?" he questions.

Reika shrugs as he asks that. What she knew was Jiaying said that it's actually a medication for Zen. It may not cure him like she wishes it would, but at least it could make Zen feels a lot better than he usually does.

Suddenly, Zen bursts out laughing.

"What's the deal Zen-nii? That surprised me!" Reika yells out of surprise.

"Ahah, nothing." He replies.

The young heiress groans slightly to him and decides to leave the other laughing to himself. Zen then breaks off from the laugh and smiles slightly to himself. Surely his impression towards her changes each time.

"Jiaying you little shit." He chuckles.

**_(A/N: Zen you curse master…)_**

**XXXXX**

It was late at night when the bird youkai wakes up once again from his slumber. Zen grunts slightly, feeling some something's shifting inside his futon. He raises his body ever so slightly; his elbows are currently the thing that is keeping his body up.

He yawns widely and tugs the futon's cover down a bit, just to reveal a sleeping ashen haired girl. He rubs his eyes to make sure what he's seeing are real, since Jiaying was supposed to sleep at Reika's room.

"Shit… I've started to see funny thing…" Zen mutters.

He rubs the temple of his head and sighs deeply, seems like she is a real person after all. He shakes the girl's body softly to wake her up, but she's not moving an inch.

This time, Zen starts to shake Jiaying's shoulder a bit harder than before, and it seems like he's getting a response. Just that the response he receives now is opposite to what he's wishing for. The girl apparently shifts her arms to hugs around Zen's chest while her face is cuddling on his side.

The bird youkai finally gives up after a few tries, because he's extremely sleepy himself not mentioning he feels comfortable by having the girl cuddling to his side. He sneaks his right arm under Jiaying's head and put his left hand hovering his eyes as he lays back down./

He doesn't understand why she sneaks into his futon at night, but he's letting it lose for now.

"Goodnight…" he mutters as he swiftly drifts back into the dreamland.

**XXXXX**

_"Longwei ge ge! Run! Escape to somewhere safe with the others!"_

_That night was unfortunate for them. Those young Nagas are still green, and they were under attack by a bigger force. Jinhai, the second son of the Ran or Lan family held the foe back to make some time for his siblings to flee. Longwei the first son hesitated at first, because it was against his pride to leave his siblings behind, but he wasn't spared with any other choice._

_That time, Jiaying was just 4. She barely understood anything that was going on around, but she heard from her parents many time – her brothers was born before her to protect her from any harm._

_Because of that, her brothers undergo many tough training for her sake. They have always gotten hurt because of her and now, one of her brother sacrificed himself just to buy them some time to run away._

_"Longwei ge ge! W-wait! Jinhai ge ge- ! You left Jinhai ge ge behind!" the little girl cried while hitting the shoulder of her 12 years old big brother. _

_"Jiaying calm down! We'll definitely come back for Jinhai." He replied while gasping for breath._

_"No! Don't leave him behind!"_

_.ji.._

_…ying.._

_. jia…_

"Jiaying!"

The girl gasps and opens her eyes wide. She's bathing in cold sweat. She breathes hard and tries to look at the person who woke her up. He frowns while staring down at the smaller female who's currently shaking violently since the time he wakes her up.

Currently, Zen's not asking anything, because he's allowing the female to recover from the shock. He then clicked his tongue and grasp on her smaller hands, hoping that she would calm down at least from having someone nearby.

It's just 3AM currently. This isn't much of a rest for him because he keep waking up every once in a while.

"Z-zen… D-d-did I woke you up?" she asks, trying really hard to put on a smile on her face.

The bird youkai groans out of annoyance and put his right hand on top of her head while his forehead resting on his right hand. He sighs deeply from her pathetic tough act. Zen could swear that he saw tears streaming down her cheeks – and she still tries to act like she's okay.

"Were you scared?" he asks.

He could hear a slight sobbing coming from the female who's squeezing into his left hand tight. He stays there silently, waiting until the female is willing to tell him what's going on inside her head.

Eventually, about few minutes later, she finally calms down. She glomps the bird youkai which practically made him fall back on the futon with her on top of him. She buries her face into his chest and grunts slightly.

"… what are you doing, you little idiot?" he asks.

"I don't want you to see my face right now." She mumbles.

Zen stares at her ashen locks and chuckles slightly.

"I can't hear your mumbling, retard." He replies shortly after.

She then growls slowly, even though it is loud enough for him to hear it. She then raises her head to stare at Zen's face, her expression towards him is priceless that time.

"I said I don't want you to see my face right now damnit!" she yells at him and buries her face back to his chest.

For god's sake, she really does amuse him to the highest degree. Not to mention that she has a lot of weird expression.

"But I just saw it…" he says.

"No, your eyes are wrong. You should see the ophthalmologist you bastard." She replies to him.

His lips then twitch into an insincere smile while the upper part of his face turns dark as she said that.

"Just why exactly do you like to pick a fight with me you little shit…" he mutters.

Upon hearing this, Jiaying chuckles slightly and shrugs. Even though he couldn't see her face right now, he's certain that she's grinning widely from what he just said earlier. Zen already lost count on how many times did he sigh since the first time he met this girl.

"Nura Clan aren't weak, we could protect you."

Finally he said it. Of course, Jiaying goes silent right after. She either feels touched from that or she just ignores him purposely.

"We? What do you mean we? Don't you have a weak constitution?" she replies.

Once again, a vein pops out on his cheek and it twitches comically. He then pinches the soft cheek of Jiaying out of annoyance. Seriously, she always picks up a fight with him, but she never bothers to leave him alone too.

Zen gives up as he tries to rest now.

"What a sadist you are." He says.

* * *

><p><strong><em>(AN : Earlier in the morning, electricity went off when I was typing out the 4th chapter for Itaku X Reika. My PC turned off and I haven't save the chapter yet that time._**

**_Luckily though, Open Text Document had auto recovery. Else I would have killed the person who turned the electricity off downstairs._**

**_For some reason, recently I tend to listen to the oldies music. Apparently I never get tired of it like how I usually did to the musics nowadays.)  
><em>**


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